Helping Hands
by PerkyGoth14
Summary: Julie vows revenge after the latest concert from Ami and Yumi, but it's revealed to be a minor cry for attention, she meets a boy who doesn't really like the band and is not a fan, but he seems to prefer her over the main members and he decides to help take care of her as an act of random kindness.
1. Chapter 1

**The girl who was the ex-member of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi was sitting alone as she held her keytar. She had dark lime green hair in a high ponytail, a lighter black jacket, a white shirt that showed her belly with a red NO symbol, blue-green jeans, and black boots. She swore revenge on Ami and Yumi, she never got around to it though. **

**"I said I would be back," Julie murmured to herself, determined, she had tried to rid the band of Ami, but then also Yumi since they made her leave the band just for wanting different songs than pop rock. She had grown more into destructive rock and roll music like Meat Loaf concerts, plus she had grown out her friendship with both of them, calling Ami other names such as 'Arthur'. "I was gonna show them... Julie, you fool, they probably think you're dead now and they wouldn't care..." she then sniffled as her emerald eyes filled with tears and she clamped her hands onto her eyes, about to cry. "No one will know or care about the one called Julie Jenkins..." **

**"Julie Jenkins?" a voice called.**

**Julie removed her hands as she heard the other voice. She could have sworn it was one of those voices in her head, but this sounded not too far from reality to be a figment of her demented and crazed imagination. She looked ahead to see a boy in the shadows.**

**"Well, show yourself!" Julie challenged, getting defensive. "I got my weapon of mass destruction! Ami has her drums, Yumi has her guitar, I have my keytar!"**

**"Relax, I won't hurt you," a boy with orangish skin with darker orange red hair with a yellow headband, green goggles, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, red shorts, and white sneakers. "I won't hurt you..."**

**Julie snorted as though she didn't believe him. "Yeah, right... That's what they all say, and what do people end up doing? Hurting me! I was a somebody, you know, I could've had friends, but no!"**

**"You're by yourself, why don't you come to the hotel with me to meet my family?"**

**"Sure," Julie clutched her keytar like it was her only friend, in fact, that was almost true. "Then you'll just dessert me right after, right?" **

**"I promise, I won't abandon you," the boy said. "I can be kind of a jerk at first, but I promise, no tricks or anything... I lost someone too."**

**Julie snorted again in instant disbelief.**

**"Really," the boy said. "I liked this girl, but this other boy liked her too. We used to fight over her, but..."**

**"What happened?" Julie came closer to the boy in interest. "Did she abandon you for her 'best friend forever'?"**

**"No," the boy shook his head. "Something happened to her, but... She told us that she didn't like boys anymore... She realized that she liked girls herself and started to become more like a boy so girls wouldn't feel weird about being seen with her. Some people who don't know her well think she really is a boy." **

**"Girl on girl, huh?" Julie chuckled. "Some people thought I was that way with Yumi..."**

**"I used to think Yumi was a boy when my sister first got into the band and had posters of you guys over her walls... I'm not into that J-Pop Stuff much, but I remember you."**

**Julie was surprised. "You remember me?"**

**"Yeah, I do," the boy stated. "I thought you had great taste, other than those songs of friendship and love, stuff like that."**

**Julie smirked. "You got good taste, kid... I think I will take that offer to meet your family... I dunno about your sister."**

**"I don't know about my sister anymore..."**

**Julie laughed a little.**

**"You got a wonderful laugh, Julie Jenkins."**

**"Thanks... Um, what is your name anyway?"**

**"Otto," the boy introduced himself. "Otto Rocket."**

**"Wicked name," Julie smirked at his last name. "Your parents astronauts?"**

**Otto laughed a little. "Nah, nothing like that... Come on, it's getting really dark. You look cold and hungry, come with me."**

**Julie looked around her surroundings, then decided to follow the boy. It was the first time in a while she actually had someone pay attention to her and care about her wants and needs. "Darn Arthur... Almost ruined my plans..."**

**"Isn't her name Amy?" Otto asked.**

**Julie sighed. "It's Ami," she actually corrected. "Yumi was MY best friend first, then that Ami Onuki showed up..."**

**"We'll talk about it at dinner," Otto looked back to her as they made way for the hotel and he held the door open for her. "After you."**

**Julie smiled. "Why, thank you, Ophelia."**

**"Otto..."**

**"Right, Otto... Sorry, I tend to get names mixed up."**

**Otto chuckled. "Makes me think of Twister..."**

**Julie went into the hotel with him. "So, you have a sister into the band?"**

**"Yeah, Reg's always into stuff like that," Otto shrugged, he went with her to the elevator to get to his room. "Luckily Dad said I didn't HAVE to go. I just wish I could've stayed home though. Then again... I probably wouldn't have met you..." he looked back to her with a smile.**

**"Oh, I'd probably go on a runaway train by the time the show was over," Julie shrugged. "To be honest, I wasn't sure where to go exactly. I kinda lost my mind when I didn't get my way."**

**"Aren't we all like that?" Otto shrugged as he came into the elevator with Julie, the doors shutting before them and taking them up a floor or two. **

**"Where you from, kid?" Julie asked.**

**"Ocean Shores, it's in North California."**

**"What's it like?"**

**"Feels like an endless summer break, only I still have to go to school. We do a lot of cool stuff though, surfing, street hockey, skateboarding, biking..."**

**Julie chuckled. "I haven't surfed before..."**

**"WHAT!?"**

**"I haven't surfed before..."**

**Otto put a hand on her shoulder. "You haven't lived! If you come back home with me, Dad, and Reggie, I could teach you if you wanted... That is, if you don't have anyone expecting you... Like a family..."**

**"I don't have a family." Julie explained.**

**Otto pulled a face. "What do you mean you don't have a family?"**

**"I don't have a family," Julie repeated, not sure what part of that he didn't understand. It's a long story, Otto..."**

**Otto hummed, wondering what she could mean by that. The elevator then stopped to drop them off at the floor. The boy took out his room key, then opened the door, turning on the light for them to show two beds. **

**"This is where me and Reg sleep for now," Otto explained to Julie. "Why don't you get some sleep? You look like you haven't in months."**

**Julie rubbed the back of her neck. "You must be a psychic, Otto..." she went to the bed, unlatching her keytar, then helped herself out of her boots, then pulled back the blankets and sheets to the bed closest to the window as she tucked herself in, removing her jacket. **

**"You want anything?" Otto offered. "Burgers, fries, soda?"**

**Julie yawned instantly. "If it's not too much trouble, could I just get some sleep? I really haven't slept in months..."**

**"Sure, Julie, get some rest." Otto soothed. **

**Julie smiled, then turned over as she started to quickly fall asleep. She lightly snored as soon as her eyes dropped and her head hit the pillow. Otto smiled, then decided to let her get some sleep, he went on the other bed and took out his laptop after hooking it up, deciding to keep himself busy without the television since Julie was sleeping. **


	2. Chapter 2

About a half hour later, Otto's family finally came back from the concert.

"That was a close call!" Reggie exclaimed as she came down the hall with her father. "That Julie girl is totally whack, Dad!"

Raymundo chuckled. "Glad you had fun, Reg... Come on, let's get your brother. He's probably bored to tears up here."

"We had an extra ticket though..." Reggie shrugged.

"Ah, you know your brother," Raymundo opened the door. "He cares more about stunts than family bonding."

Reggie saw her brother on his bed with the laptop. "Hey, get off that, I need to publish my concert experience for The 'Zine."

Otto glared at his older sister with purple hair, a pink short-sleeved shirt with a yellow rocket on it, camouflage pants, and red shoes. "Beat it, I got social media to scroll through unlike you..."

"Give it!" Reggie grabbed her laptop. "How'd you figure out my password anyway?"

"A magician never reveals his secrets," Otto smirked. "Now keep it down, Julie's trying to sleep!"

"Oh, my bad..." Reggie rolled her eyes, then looked back to her brother. "Wait, Julie?"

"Yeah, Julie," Otto scoffed back. "She's had a long day, now, if you don't mind..."

Reggie looked to the bed to see the green-haired ex band member. Her eyes widened, then looked back to her brother. "Otto, you let a fugitive keyboard artist in our room and sleep in _my _bed!?"

"I'm about to let you sleep in the alley if you don't shut up!" Otto shook his fist.

"What's the problem, you guys?" Raymundo saw his children arguing yet again.

"Otto let a complete stranger into our room!" Reggie snarled.

Raymundo looked to see the sleeping Julie, then looked firmly down to his younger child. "Son, how could you? I told you thousands of times to never talk to strangers!"

"She's not a stranger, Dad, she's a celebrity." Otto wrinkled his nose.

"That makes no difference," Raymundo crossed his arms. "Wake her up and put her back outside where she belongs!"

"Yeah, she tried to kill Ami and Yumi!" Reggie added, folding her arms as well. "She's just some lame wannabe!"

"Don't talk about her like that!" Otto sounded defensive. "She's just lonely and needs a real friend, okay? I know this looks bad, but I'm gonna help her and if you don't wanna help, then I'll do it myself!"

Julie eventually woke up, coming to Otto's side and looked drowsy still. "What's going on here?"

"My dad and sister don't understand you like I do, Julie," Otto looked back to her. "You were gonna run away, let's run away together."

Raymundo's eyes widened. "Whoa, no, no, no..." he shook his hands. "No one's running away. Julie, you're not our family, you have to get out of here."

Julie heaved a sigh. "I understand, Mr. Rocket, I'll get my boots, jacket, and keytar and just get going."

"Serves you right for trying to ruin Ami and Yumi's lives!" Reggie huffed.

Julie felt broken at that and sniffled.

"Reg, can't you see she's suffered enough?" Otto put his arm around his sister's shoulder as she turned back, crossing her arms and looked cross with this whole situation. "Please, Dad, if Reggie won't, just let us take care of her... She has nowhere else to go."

"No, it's fine, I can stay in a homeless shelter." Julie insisted.

Raymundo looked firm, but his expression softened. This poor girl looked so damaged and not in a good way. "Well... Okay... She can stay but as long as she doesn't rob us or trick us like those... Amy and Yummy girls... Whatever their names are."

"_Ami and Yumi,_ Dad." Reggie corrected, for what felt like the 10,000th time tonight.

"I promise, I won't, I really won't this time." Julie sounded honest for once in her miserable life.

Raymundo smiled. "It's alright with me... Are you okay, you look like you haven't slept or bathed in months."

"I haven't until tonight actually," Julie said as she rubbed the back of her neck. "It was tough when I was kicked out of the band last year. I even started to miss our greedy and rotten manager, Kaz..."

"Is he really as bad as they say he is?" Reggie asked, sounding interested in her for once.

"He usually made me, Ami, and Yumi do crazy stuff," Julie rolled her eyes slightly, having her side of adventures before she came back for the Puffy duo who she considered as family. "I heard that Ami and Yumi did crazy stuff too, but a lot more crazier than before I came back... Like, they had to deal with that crazy eight-year-old girl, Harmony, being the number one fan, but she didn't even know who I was!"

"Smarts..." Reggie was familiar with Harmony's status as the number one fan, she had met her in some fan conventions.

"It really did, Reggie." Julie nodded to her. "I-If I may call you that."

"Call me what you like except for 'Regina'." Reggie laughed, she was going to accept Julie now.

Julie and Reggie smiled, shaking each other's hands.

"My real name's Juliana, but you better not call me that." Julie smirked.

"Understood." Reggie gave a nod.

"Are you hungry, Julie?" Raymundo asked their guest. "I was planning on taking Reggie and Otto out for a late dinner after the concert... If you don't mind."

"I wouldn't mind at all," Julie smiled as she tightened her jacket, then sat on the bed to get her boots back on. "I haven't eaten a real meal since last week."

"You must be so hungry..." Raymundo sounded shocked.

"Starving." Julie nodded.

"Why didn't you go home and ask for some food there?" Reggie asked.

"It's a long story, Reg." Otto told his sister what Julie told him about how she had nowhere else to go and barely had a bite to eat.


	3. Chapter 3

Raymundo took Otto, Reggie, and Julie to Pink Palace. Julie knew the place because it was one of Yumi's favorite burger joints. Raymundo ordered as much food as he could, knowing Julie would be a lot more hungry than the three of them combined. After they all got settled, they decided to get to know each other a little bit better.

"So, Jules," Raymundo turned to the green-haired girl. "Tell us a little bit about yourself."

Julie bit into her burger, looking across to him. "Like what?"

"Well, like, your family... Before Puffy AmiYumi for starters..." Reggie prompted with a shrug.

Julie swallowed hard. "I-I don't have a family..."

"What do you mean you don't have a family?" Otto asked. "Everyone has a family."

"Not me..." Julie looked away distantly.

"Come on, Jules," Raymundo kept calling her that, he decided he would call her that and she's accepted it. "Don't you remember your mom, your dad, any brothers or sisters?"

Julie looked sadly to the Rocket family. "Not exactly..."

They all glanced to her.

"Julie, were you an orphan?" Otto asked.

Julie rubbed her arm anxiously. "I guess I was..."

"Do you remember anything before you joined Puffy AmiYumi?" Reggie asked.

"Some..." Julie heaved a sharp sigh. "I'll start at the beginning..."

* * *

_***Flashback, Julie's POV***_

_I was just a little girl in the backseat of a car. There was a woman sitting in the seat in front of me since I was too young to sit up front with her. The woman had ebony hair tied into a high ponytail and looked a little pale, deathly, I would say. She wore an aqua dress with a darker teal skirt with matching earrings and had glasses. I don't remember her name, but she was often called to as Child Services. _

_"Now, Miss Jenkins," the woman looked behind to look at me. "Because you were found in an alley next to a burning house, you are going to live in an orphanage until a family decides to come take you in."_

_"What happened to my family?" I became animated with a million questions with zero answers. "Do I have a Mom and Dad? Do I have any brothers or sisters? What's going to happen to me?"_

_"Quiet, child," the woman demanded sharply, her tone cold as her demeanor towards me or any other child she would deal with in situations like this. "You are an orphan. You have no parents, you have no family, your family is **dead**."_

_"Dead?" My heart sank. _

_"Yes, you are an orphan with no one to love and take care of you until someone decides to adopt you." the woman told me, not sounding like the motherly type despite putting children into foster homes for decades. _

_I stared out the window. We were going into some dark, terrible place, it looked like something out of Grimms Fairy Tales. I felt like I was going to the candy house from Hansel and Gretal. I couldn't stay in this orphanage. I took a bobby pin out from my pigtails and hooked the locked door after undoing my seat-belt. I opened the door, ducked, and rolled out._

_"Juliana Jenkins, get back here this instant!" the foster care woman demanded, nearly hissing._

_I ignored her, I just kept running. There was no way I was going to live in an orphanage. I had seen many movies where the kids are just mean because no one has their parents. Also to be raised by complete strangers. I kept running and ignored the screams and yells from that woman. I just kept running, my frilly pink dress had been ripped and torn from the jagged branches of the old oak trees. I didn't dare look or turn back, I was just leaving. _

* * *

_I just kept running, I couldn't think of where to go. However, once I stopped running, I had run toward a cliff and stopped. I looked down and saw waves and splashing water. _

_"JULIANA JENKINS!" I heard my name called again, sounding strict._

_I took out the other bobby pin in my other pigtail, then despite not knowing how to swim, I just jumped into the water. I squeezed my eyes shut as I free-fell into the water with a crashing splash heard. I blacked out for a while, I know because I woke up somewhere else..._

* * *

**_*Regular POV*_**

"Whoa, did you die?" Otto asked.

Julie narrowed her emerald eyes to him. "Yes, I died..." she said sarcastically.

"Bummer." Raymundo blinked, seeming to believe that too.

"Guys!" Reggie called in annoyance, then looked back to their new friend. "So, Julie, what happened next? How do you know you were alright?"

"I woke up in a summer camp," Julie explained. "Camp Youwannasushi."

* * *

_***Julie's POV***_

_My eyes slowly opened up and I saw a few kids standing in front of me. One with pink hair in pigtails, one with purple hair that was short, and there was a boy with brown hair with a hat and red shirt. The girls appeared to had been wearing sailor fukus, those school uniforms you see Japanese girls were on TV all the time. The pink-haired girl looked chipper, the purple-haired girl looked bored, and the brown-haired boy looked cautious._

_"Huh?" I blinked. "W-What happened...?"_

_"You almost drowned," the pink-haired girl explained to me. "You gotta be careful with swimming in the lake, friend."_

_"Swimming?" I asked, I surely wasn't doing that. "I didn't swim... I jumped into the water... Had to escape... Child Services..."_

_"Child Services?" the purple-haired girl asked. "What do you mean?"_

_"What about your parents?" the brown-haired boy asked. "Did they not protect you, fair maiden?"_

_I pulled a face. There was that word again. Parents. "No... T-They died..."_

_"Oh, goodness..." the pink-haired girl sounded like she was about to cry. "You poor thing! Going to summer camp all by yourself and your parents didn't even bring you!"_

_"Howdy, campers," an older man came over with a cheeky grin. "Whatdya got there, little guys and gals?"_

_"New friend, Counselor Kieth," the pink-haired girl pointed to me with a chipper smile. "She washed up here!"_

_"I see... I'm afraid you're out of uniform though, little miss," Kieth looked at me, never removing the creepy smile he had. "Lemme see if I have any spares... Excuse me, girls..." He went to get me an outfit like the other girls wore, the boys didn't need uniforms for some reason._

_I was put into a uniform after a while and I eventually met Ami and Yumi. Ami was very thrilled to ride in a bus to camp and wondered what it would be like to ride in a bus all the time while Yumi was just in a foul mood. I decided to talk with Yumi to see what was wrong, for a while, she didn't want to talk about it, but I eventually broke her down._

_"So, my mom died after I was born." Yumi explained sadly enough. _

_"What about your dad?" I asked sympathetically like a sister. "What happened to him?" _

_"He left about a month ago," Yumi sighed sharply. I live with my grandparents now... They're nice and all, but since they're old, I know they're gonna die very soon... And who knows what'll happen to me? I might end up in a foster home... Not to mention that they barely pay attention to anything in my life and they let Madame control me last year when my dad was getting himself into a lot of trouble."_

_"Who's Madame?"_

_"Madame Blubbery," Yumi nearly scowled at the name. "She practically raised me up until my dad came up to Obāchan and Bachaan's place... At first, I didn't mind the opera, but I threw a tantrum and quit. That was about when Dad came back and for a while, he had to leave... So he sent me to them... And they thought I needed fresh air and exercise this summer, so after school let up, they signed me up for this summer camp crap. I don't even have any friends."_

_I put my hand on Yumi's and looked into those ocean blue eyes of hers. "You got a friend in me, Yumi..."_

**_End of Flashback_**

* * *

**Regular POV**

"And that's why I wanted Yumi to be _my _friend and no one else's..." Julie concluded, which seemed to had made the Rocket family in tears suddenly.


End file.
